Something Like An Intervention
by Galadriel1010
Summary: Mica and David have noticed something strange about their uncles.


**Author's Note:** This is very definitely set in the Schmoop 'verse. There might be a full novelfic covering it, but I'm currently fighting with the moral issues and plot points raised by it. There will also be fic explaining who John is, but the tl;dr is that he is Alice's son, who was born after Steven died. He's about three months younger than Mirabelle.  


* * *

Mica carried the mugs over to the table and distributed them between the other three, then returned for her own. Her uncles were looking slightly nervous, possibly because the mood was drifting towards that of an intervention, despite their best efforts to make it seem like a normal 'David's home from university for the weekend, let's do lunch!'. She patted Ianto on the head and dropped into the chair next to him. "So... there's kind of a point to this," she confessed.

Ianto nodded. "We'd suspected as much. Getting it over with before lunch?"

"Yeah, something like that," she agreed. "We've been... colluding. And certain things have come to our attention."

"I have a horrible feeling I know where this is going..." Ianto said quietly

David cleared his throat and looked up from his mug. "Enquiring minds have noticed that whilst we've aged, and our parents have aged... you two have been the same for the last ten years. It's getting a bit embarrassing, actually."

Jack and Ianto looked at each other and nodded. "That's one way of putting it," Jack agreed.

Mica smiled slightly. "You're immortal, aren't you? Both of you."

"Yes, we are," Jack confirmed. "How long have you known?"

"Known? Only about five seconds," she shrugged. "But we guessed a while back. You buried too many colleagues and... we heard Aunt Alice call you 'Dad', Jack; just after John was born, you were both up with him one night when we stayed over."

"We thought that she meant that you were John's dad, so we didn't say anything," David continued for her. "Because that would just have been weird. But you're not, are you?"

"No," Jack agreed. "I'm Alice's dad. John's granddad, and Steven's."

"Do you have any other children or grandchildren? God... Mira and Andrew are older than their nephew," Mica realised. "That must be so weird."

Jack sighed and his grip on his mug tightened. "I had a son and a daughter, a long time ago."

"They died?" she guessed.

"Yeah; Spanish flu when they were very young. I had a miscarriage in the fifties as well, and then Alice in the sixties," Jack sighed and Ianto reached out to take his hand. "Alice was the first to reach adulthood."

Mira watched their hands, the way they were holding onto each other tightly. "How old were you by then?" she asked.

"Somewhere over a hundred, by the time she was eighteen," Jack admitted softly.

"That..." Mira blinked. "Okay, you're not allowed to comment when I bring my thirty year-old boyfriend home. Unless... you're really, properly thirty three, aren't you, Ianto?"

"Yep," Ianto met her gaze firmly. "I was born as human and mortal as your mum, but then I got... ill, to put it simply. It was more complicated and messed up, but it got to the stage where my only hope of survival was to bind myself to Jack forever. It's... complicated," he said in response to their bewildered looks.

"Everything with you is complicated," David commented. "I guess it was that Spring when you were in hospital, and Andrew and Mira stayed with us and with Alice a lot?"

"Yeah, that was the one," Ianto confirmed. "It was alien, and targeted."

"Someone wanted you dead?" Mica gasped. "Why?"

"Lots of people want me dead," Ianto shrugged, as if he didn't really care. "I'm Torchwood. It's tough luck, now."

"Yeah... Jesus," she ran her fingers through her hair and tried to process this. She'd known that they were immortal, or had extended their lives somehow. She'd known that their lives were dangerous, especially now they'd gone back to Torchwood. But to hear them talk about it in such a matter-of-fact way, and about people wanting to kill them... Her gaze flickered down to their joined hands and their tight grip on each other, and she realised that they weren't nearly as alright with it as they made out. "Were you going to tell us?"

Ianto nodded. "We were going to go for nineteen, once you'd had a year at university. The letter's already written; there's one for each of you and for John, and a bit extra as well. And no, you can't get it early."

She laughed and shook her head. "Noted. Do Mam and Nan know?"

"We discussed it with them before we attempted it," Ianto confirmed. "Once we realised how serious it was, and what we were facing, we talked to them all."

"And we were, what fifteen?" Mica frowned. "We were old enough."

"It was generational rather than age," Ianto explained apologetically. "And because you were looking after Mira and Andrew, and we wanted to keep it from them as much as possible. I don't know how much you knew about it..."

"We sort of got the impression that... that Mam didn't expect you to come out of hospital," David confessed. "But no one was allowed to admit it."

"I don't know," Ianto sighed. "We never really talked about it after it was done. It's just one of those things."

"You're going to see us all die," Mica realised. "How... Shit, how do you even face that?"

Ianto shrugged and looked sideways at Jack, but kept talking to her. "Because it's easier with two. I couldn't leave him alone, could I?"

"No, I suppose not." She smiled and shook her head, brushing her hair back out of her eyes. "You're both okay with it, then?"

"Yeah, just about," Ianto looked back at her. "You two are taking it well."

David snorted and drained his coffee. "We've known for years; we just needed it confirmed. Besides, having you two as uncles trained us in reacting well to startling revelations. I think we were ready for just about anything after Steven."

Jack released his tight grip on Ianto's hand and collected the empty mugs up. "I didn't want to drag anyone else into this," he sighed. "It's all too much, too dangerous."

"Uncle Jack..." Mica got up from the table and wrapped her arms tight around his waist from behind, resting her head on his shoulder. He turned away from the sink to hug her back and she smiled. "If we had a choice between normality and having you in the family, normality could go jump off a cliff." She pulled back and looked between Jack and Ianto, who was craning around to look at them. "We're glad you have each other, especially if you've got so far to go. No one should have to travel alone."

He hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead. "Thank you. I wouldn't give this up for the world."

"You know," she sighed, leaning against him, "that would be reassuring if it weren't actually feasible."

Jack chuckled and eased her away. "Trust me, I'm a professional." He looked from her to David and back again. "You're okay? We're okay?"

"Definitely," they agreed. Mica took the mugs off him and put them in the dishwasher. "Right, someone promised us afternoon tea once we've picked Mira and Andrew up from school, and it's time to go collect them. Come on."

Ianto got up from the table and framed Jack's face in his hands, kissing him sweetly and softly. "She is so like her mum, and her nan, and her great aunt... We're going to have to watch out for Mira."

"We are," Jack wrapped his arms around Ianto's waist and ignored David's cough and rapid exit from the room. "Thank you."

"I wouldn't have had it any other way," Ianto assured him.


End file.
